Oviductal glycoprotein 1 (OVGP1), an oviductin, is involved in the maintenance of sperm viability and motility and contributes to sperm capacitation in the oviduct. In this study, the regulatory effects exerted by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and F2α (PGF2α) on OVGP1 expression via their corresponding receptors in bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOECs) were investigated. BOECs were cultured in vitro, and their expression of receptors of PGE2 (PTGER1, PTGER2, PTGER3, and PTGER4) and PGF2α (PTGFR) was measured using RT-qPCR...

We recently developed an air-liquid interface long-term culture of differentiated bovine oviductal epithelial cells (ALI-BOEC). This ex vivo oviduct epithelium is capable of supporting embryo development in co-culture up to the blastocyst stage without addition of embryo culture medium. However, blastocyst rates in co-culture were markedly lower than in conventional in vitro embryo production procedures. In the present study, we assessed target gene expression of ALI-BOEC derived embryos to test their similarity to embryos from conventional in vitro embryo culture...

The bovine oviduct provides the site for fertilization and early embryonic development. Modifications to this physiological environment, for instance the presence of pathogenic bacterial species, could diminish reproductive success at early stages of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to elucidate the inflammatory responses of bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) to a pathogenic bacterial species (Trueperella pyogenes) and a potentially pathogenic bacterium (Bacillus pumilus). BOEC from four healthy animals were isolated, cultured in passage 0 (P0) and passaged until P3...

During the last few years, several co-culture systems using either BOEC or VERO feeder cells have been developed to improve bovine embryo development and these systems give better results at high oxygen concentration (20%). In parallel, the SOF medium, used at 5% O2, has been developed to mimic the oviduct fluid. Since 2010s, the SOF medium has become popular in improving bovine embryo development and authors have started to associate this medium to co-culture systems. Nevertheless, little is known about the putative benefit of this association on early development...

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a highly debilitating and life-threatening genetic vascular disorder arising from endothelial cell (EC) proliferation and hypervascularization, for which no cure exists. Because HHT is caused by loss-of-function mutations in bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9)-ALK1-Smad1/5/8 signaling, interventions aimed at activating this pathway are of therapeutic value. We interrogated the whole-transcriptome in human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs) and found that ALK1 signaling inhibition was associated with a specific pro-angiogenic gene expression signature, which included a significant elevation of DLL4 expression...

Dietary contamination by Zearalenone (ZEN) has a detrimental effect on bovine fertility. Recently, we showed a novel anti-inflammatory response of bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) to active sperm cells in vitro. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of ZEN exposure of BOEC on the immune-related cytokine expression in response to bovine sperm. At concentrations of 100 and 1000ng/mL, ZEN induced the expression of TNF and IL1B (pro-inflammatory cytokines) as well as IL8 (chemokine) in BOEC in a dose-dependent manner...

Patients with lymphoma are at high risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE). The purpose of the present study was to identify the target gene associated with VTE for patients with lymphoma. Microarray data was downloaded from the gene expression omnibus database (GSE17078), which comprised the control group, 27 normal blood outgrowth endothelial cell (BOEC) samples, and the case group, 3 BOEC samples of venous thrombosis with protein C deficiency. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by the Limma package of R...

Cardiac tissue engineering aims to produce replacement tissue patches in the lab to replace or treat infarcted myocardium. However, current patches lack pre-formed microvascularization and are therefore limited in thickness and force production. In the present study, we sought to assess whether a bi-layer patch composed of a layer made from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and a microvessel layer composed of self-assembled human blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs) and pericytes (PCs) was capable of engrafting on the epicardial surface of a nude rat infarct model and becoming perfused by the host four weeks after acute implantation...

Members of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) family, including bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), are expressed in the epithelial cells of the mammalian oviduct. These signaling molecules play important roles in development and tissue homeostasis; however, little is known about their function in the mammalian oviduct. In the present study, RT-qPCR was used to analyze the mRNA abundance of BMP type I (BMPR1A, BMPR1B, ACVR1) and type II receptors (BMPR2, ACVR2A, ACVR2B) in the bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) isolated from ampulla and isthmus at both the follicular (FP) and the luteal (LP) phase of the estrous cycle...

After insemination in the cow, a sperm reservoir is formed within the oviducts, allowing the storage then progressive release of spermatozoa toward the ovulated oocyte. In order to investigate the hormonal regulation of these events in vitro, the ovarian steroids 17beta-estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) were added at various concentrations to monolayers of bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) before or during co-incubation with spermatozoa. Main findings demonstrate that: (1) a 18-h pretreatment of BOEC with 100 pg/mL and 100 ng/mL of E2 decreased by 25% the ability of BOEC to bind spermatozoa after 10 min, and for the highest dose of E2, 60 min of co-incubation; (2) P4 at concentrations of 10, 100 and 1000 ng/mL induced the release within 60 min of 32 to 47% of bound spermatozoa from BOEC; this sperm releasing effect was maintained after a 18-h pretreatment of BOEC with 100 pg/mL of E2; (3) E2 in concentrations above 100 pg/mL inhibited the releasing effect of P4 on bound sperm in a dose-dependent manner; (4) spermatozoa bound to then released from BOEC by the action of P4 induced higher cleavage and blastocyst rates after in vitro fertilization than the control group...

In the mid-1990s, my research group began to devise a method to establish endothelial cell cultures from human peripheral blood, with an ultimate goal of examining interindividual heterogeneity of endothelial biology. The initial work, published in the JCI in 2000, described the method enabling successful attainment of blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOEC). Truly endothelial, BOEC are progeny of a transplantable cell that originates in bone marrow, a putative endothelial progenitor. Our subsequent experimental work focused upon practical applications of BOEC: their use for gene therapy, tissue engineering, assessment of mutant gene effect, and discovery of heterogeneity in endothelial biology...

: Bleeding associated with angiodysplasia is a common, often intractable complication in patients with von Willebrand disease (VWD). von Willebrand factor (VWF), the protein deficient or defective in VWD, is a negative regulator of angiogenesis, which may explain the pathologic blood vessel growth in VWD. This study explores the normal range of angiogenesis in blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs) derived from healthy donors and compares this to angiogenesis in BOECs from VWD patients of all types and subtypes...

Genistein is one of the most abundant isoflavones in soybean. This molecule induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in different normal and cancer cells. Genistein has been of considerable interest due to its adverse effects on bovine reproduction, altering estrous cycle, implantation and fetal development and producing subfertility or infertility. The objective of this work was to study the effects of genistein on the expression of selected genes involved in the regulation of cell cycle and apoptosis. Primary cultures of bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) were treated with different genistein concentrations (0...

Signaling components of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are expressed in an anatomically and temporally regulated fashion in bovine oviduct. However, a local response of this signaling to the presence of the embryo has yet to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if early embryo-oviduct interaction induces changes in the gene expression of BMP signaling components. For this purpose, we used an in vitro co-culture system to investigate the local interaction between bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) from the isthmus region with early embryos during two developmental periods: before (from the 2-cell to 8-cell stage) or during (from the 8-cell to 16-cell stage) the main phase of embryonic genome activation (EGA)...

The oviduct provides the natural micro-environment for gamete interaction, fertilization and early embryo development in mammals, such as the cow. In conventional culture systems, bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) undergo a rapid loss of essential differentiated cell properties; we aimed to develop a more physiological in vitro oviduct culture system capable of supporting fertilization. U-shaped chambers were produced using stereo-lithography and mounted with polycarbonate membranes, which were used as culture inserts for primary BOECs...

Sperm are allogenic to the female genital tract; however, oviducts provide optimal conditions for survival and capacitation of these non-self cells until fertilization. Recently, we showed that oviduct-conditioned media and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) suppress sperm phagocytosis by polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) under physiological conditions. We hypothesized that sperm binding to bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOECs) could change the local innate immunity via PGE2. As the first step to obtain basic information, sub-confluent BOEC monolayers were co-cultured with swim-up sperm for 2 h...